


On the Bridal Day

by shefrommo



Series: I'm no longer in Creative Writing classes, so I can post these now [10]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Another old story that I am very proud of, F/M, Introspection, Originally written on 12/7/16, Written for Creative Writing class
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:22:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24905266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shefrommo/pseuds/shefrommo
Summary: Thea is preparing for her wedding to a merman. She has a few thoughts to share first.
Relationships: Thea & Her Family
Series: I'm no longer in Creative Writing classes, so I can post these now [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1800808





	On the Bridal Day

Thea’s dark brown hair was woven up into two long braids, which were twisted together into a bun and decorated with a spray of beautiful flowers of all kinds. Her dark blue eyes were clear of tears and misery, so unlike the others in her position both past and present. She allowed her sobbing mother and dearly beloved twin sister to fuss over the arrangement of her dress and the flowers they’d painstakingly woven into her hair.

It was a simple dress—white with a low neckline, no sleeves, petticoats, or frills. It was blessedly free of a corset. A mark, Thea supposed, in her fiance’s favor. At least he had the sense not to make her wear something as stifling as the everyday village woman’s clothes. The gown he’d picked for her carried no embellishments, no decorations. The only pretty ‘baubles’ Thea would wear would be the traditional, symbolic floral arrangement in her hair and the bracelet on her wrist.

The bracelet. Thea’s eyes flitted down to peer at it involuntarily, and her sister Dinith’s followed hers, only for her nearly identical copy’s sobbing to grow louder at the sight. The bracelet was as simple as her dress. It was a thin black cord—of what, Thea didn’t know—adorned only with a single turquoise bead. It was no elaborate engagement ring, nor was it engraved with anything that Thea could see. It was a cord with a bead on it, and it had ruined Thea’s life.

Their village was plagued by monsters of all kinds, and their only shelter was a Lighthouse powered by Ward-Glyphs. Mer-king Hephaele had agreed to send his best sorcerers to keep it in working condition but only if the eligible village maidens could be used as brides for his sons and people. The merfolk could only be men and so needed human wives.

Thea had been picked at the Engagement Ceremony, and her shark-tailed fiance had given her the Engagement mark as per tradition. Today, in less than five minutes, Thea would step into the waters of Ink Sea, lie on her back, and allow her husband to pull her under the water. The floral arrangement in her hair would fall apart and float away, taking her land life and all that originated on it away with it. The last her family would see of her would be her face, slowly consumed by the water she would live beneath for the rest of her life.

She straightened up and took her first step under the mossy, gray, stone arch into the luminescent cove. Thea could hear the lap of the water against the cavern walls and wondered if her green eyed, green-tailed husband was as anxious as she was.


End file.
